In recent years, video poker games have become very popular. One of the most common variations of video poker is Five Card Draw, which can be played on a gaming device using electronic cards. In general, for a play of a Five Card Draw poker game, the gaming device deals a player an initial hand of five cards face up from a fifty-two card deck of playing cards. The gaming device enables the player to discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards from the initial hand. The gaming device replaces each discarded card with another card from the deck. After replacement of any discarded cards, the gaming device evaluates the cards of the player's hand against a paytable to determine whether the player's hand forms a winning hand associated with one of a plurality of different winning hand categories.
The paytable employed by the gaming device is determined based on the type of Five Card Draw poker game being played. Table 1 below includes the different winning hand categories, example winning hands associated with the different winning hand categories, and awards associated with the different winning hand categories for different wager amounts for an example Jacks or Better Five Card Draw poker game. These winning hand categories are listed from highest to lowest ranking. In this example, the winning hands of the “Jacks or Better” winning hand category, the lowest ranking winning hand category, include a pair of Jacks, a pair of Queens, a pair of Kings, and a pair of Aces. This example also includes progressive awards for the highest ranking winning hand categories, i.e., a royal flush and a straight flush, which could be earned if a player has wagered five credits.
TABLE 1Winning Hand Categories, Example Winning Hands, and Awards for Example Jacks or Better Five Card Draw Poker GameAwardAwardAwardAwardAwardWinning(Wager(Wager(Wager(Wager(Wager HandExampleof 1of 2of 3of 4of 5 CategoryWinning HandCredit) Credits)Credits)Credits)Credits)RoyalA    K    Q    J    10    2505007501000Royal RushFlushProgressiveStraight10    9    8    7    6    50100150200StraightFlushFlushProgressiveFour of aJ    J♥ J♦ J    3    255075100125KindFullA♥ A♦ A    6♦ 6   918273645HouseFlushA    J    8    6    2   612182430Straight8♦ 7    6    5    4   48121620Three of aQ    Q♥ Q♦ 6♦ 2   3691215KindTwo Pair8♦ 8♥ 5♥ 5    2   246810Jacks orK♦ K    8    7    2♥12345Better
Within each category, hands are ranked according to the rank of individual cards, with an Ace being the highest card and a two being the lowest card. There is no difference in rank between the four suits of cards. All hands can be ranked in a linear ranking from highest to lowest. Because suits are all of the same value, however, there are multiple hands that have identical rankings. For example, there are four equivalent hands for each type of straight flush, four of a kind, or flush, and there are over a hundred equivalent hands for each two pair variation. As a particular example, a straight flush including 5 6 7 8 9 is equivalent to a straight flush of all the same ranks but of a different suit such as 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ 8♥ 9♥.
Certain known video poker gaming devices have an auto-hold feature which displays recommendations to the player regarding which cards to hold and which cards to discard for optimal play. The gaming device executing an auto-hold program compares in an iterative manner the cards in the initial hand to a plurality of card patterns. Each card pattern is associated with a predetermined hold pattern, typically determined by the heuristics or experience of successful poker players, such as hold all five cards in the initial hand when they are a straight, hold the three cards when they are three kings, or discard all cards, for example. When the initial dealt hand matches a card pattern in the auto-hold program, the gaming device indicates to the player which cards to hold in accordance with the heuristics in the auto-hold program. The player can subsequently choose to select more cards than have been recommended to be held or de-select none, one, or more cards that have been recommended to be held.
The typical auto-hold feature in known gaming devices recommends the cards to hold based on the cards in the initial hand and/or the current paytable that denotes the awards for each possible winning hand that could result from the initial hand. An expected value for each possible way to hold the initial hand is looked up or calculated when determining which cards to recommend for holding. The expected value is calculated by determining the number of ways that each possible winning hand can occur, multiplying the number of ways by the award for that possible winning hand, then summing the product for each possible winning hand and dividing by the total number of possible outcomes. As such, the auto-hold feature recommends holding the cards that will yield the highest expected value, i.e., highest award. An auto-hold feature is described in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,569.
Progressive awards are also known. Various video poker gaming devices include progressive awards for one, or a plurality (such as two), of the potential winning hands. Typically, one or more of the most valuable winning hands are associated with one or more progressive awards. In one form, a progressive award includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on one or more gaming devices associated with the progressive awards. For example, 1% of each wager placed on the primary game of the gaming device may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming device(s) and more portions of the players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a player obtains a winning hand which results in the progressive award, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial amount and a portion of each subsequent wager is allocated to that next progressive award.
If a winning hand matches more than one of the winning hand categories, the gaming device typically provides the highest progressive award. For example, a video poker gaming device includes a royal flush progressive award and a straight flush progressive award. The initial amount of the royal flush progressive award is typically greater than the initial amount of the straight flush progressive award, e.g., $10,000 and $2,000, respectively. As long as neither progressive award is provided to a player with a winning hand matching a royal flush or a straight flush, the royal flush progressive award will continue to be greater than the straight flush progressive award as each progressive award increases. If a winning hand matches both a royal flush and a straight flush, e.g., the winning hand includes A K Q J 10, the gaming device would provide the royal flush progressive award because that award is greater than the straight flush progressive award. However, the straight flush progressive award could be greater than the royal flush progressive award in certain situations. For example, if a player has been provided the royal flush progressive award, then the royal flush progressive award resets to its initial amount. At this point, the straight flush progressive award may have increased such that it is greater than the initial amount of the royal flush progressive award. Therefore, for this example winning hand, the gaming device provides the straight flush progressive award, even though a straight flush is a lower ranked winning hand category than a royal flush.
When determining recommendations of cards to hold in the initial hand dealt to a player, the auto-hold feature of known video poker gaming devices only takes into account the current amounts of multiple progressive awards when the higher ranking winning hand category has a higher progressive award. Such gaming devices recommend cards of an initial hand to hold based on the rankings of the winning hand categories. Accordingly, these gaming devices recommend the non-optimal cards to hold from an initial hand even if the progressive award of a lower ranked winning hand category is greater than the progressive award of a higher ranked winning hand category. Using the example above, in the event the straight flush progressive award is greater than the royal flush progressive award, the gaming device could recommend non-optimal cards to hold from the initial hand that could potentially lead to a winning hand including a royal flush. To be optimal, in this example, the gaming device should recommend cards to hold from the initial hand that could potentially lead to a winning hand including a straight flush since that winning hand would provide a greater award. Generally, it is more difficult to obtain a winning hand matching a higher ranked winning hand category than a winning hand matching a lower ranked winning hand category. In particular, for this example, it is more difficult to obtain a winning hand including a royal flush (i.e., a winning hand must include a ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of the same suit) than it is to obtain a winning hand that includes a straight flush (i.e., a winning hand includes a sequence of any five cards of the same suit).
A need therefore exists for gaming systems and gaming methods which provide draw poker games where the auto-hold functionality is enhanced to take multiple progressive awards into account.